NEW DEAL FOR COMMUNITIES: NATIONAL EVALUATION MAIN PHASE

NEW DEAL FOR COMMUNITIES: NATIONAL EVALUATION MAIN PHASE ANNUAL EVALUATION REPORT 2004 NEW CROSS GATE, LEWISHAM AUTHORS PAUL CONVERY & LISA MCCRINDLE SQW LTD FEBRUARY 2005

New Deal for Communities National Evaluation Partnership Report: New Cross Gate, Lewisham

EVALUATION OF THE NEW DEAL FOR COMMUNITIES PROGRAMME The Evaluation of the New Deal for Communities programme is being undertaken by a consortium of organisations led by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. The Evaluation has three objectives: • To provide evidence relating to 'what works and why' in neighbourhood regeneration • To undertaken value for money and cost effectiveness assessments of the NDC

Programme • To support the 39 Partnerships and the Programme as a whole in achieving high

standards of performance. Key research tasks include: • Household surveys in all 39 areas in 2002 and 2004 • Identifying, collecting and assessing a range of secondary data, including results from

the 2001 Census • Analysing outcome indictors against expenditure to estimate net impacts within and

across the Programme and on specific groups of beneficiaries • An annual programme of interviews with Partnership staff, board members and

representatives of key stakeholders • Five teams of specialists undertaking case study work focussing on progress in the five

key outcome areas: health, housing and the physical environment, education, worklessness, crime

• Longitudinal case study work in a small number of NDC areas • A programme of dissemination activities, designed to provide support and information

for those involved in policy development and implementation This 2001-05 phase of the evaluation will culminate in an 'Interim Programme Wide Evaluation' which is due to be published in autumn 2005.

New Deal for Communities National Evaluation Partnership Report: New Cross Gate, Lewisham

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SQW would like to thank the Partnership Board, the Director, the team and all those interviewed for their co-operation with this research. A list of those interviewed is as follows: Sheila Anderson-Hardy Resident Resident Board Member

Lindon Beckford Resident Resident Board Member Irene Byworth Resident Resident Board Member

Yvonne Campbell Programme Team Employment Advisor (Employment and Enterprise Team)

Carol Cooke Government Office for London Matthew Donaldson NXG NDC Finance & Monitoring Officer

Maria Drury Deptford & New Cross Credit Union – Voluntary Sector Board Member

Ronan Fox Programme Team Enterprise Development Officer (Employment and Enterprise Team)

Gill Haynes Independent Chair Board Member

Jack Hiett Programme Team Programme Manager - Employment & Enterprise (Youth)

Ken Jonson Resident Resident Board Member Victoria Joseph Resident Resident Board Member Bayo Kelekun Programme Team Finance and Resource Manager Lesley Langman Programme Team Finance/IT Officer Jascha Lenkiewicz Resident Resident Board Member Brian Lymbery Lewisham Primary Care Trust Board Member Des Malone Local Strategic Partnership Board Member Cllr. Paul Maslin LB Lewisham Board Member Cllr. Robert Massey LB Lewisham Board Member Steve McGann Programme Team Community Development Co-ordinator Ramona Metcalfe Programme Team Programme Manager - Education David Moynihan Programme Team Diversity & Strategy Manager Akin Olunloyo Resident Resident Board Member

Graham O'Neil Programme Team Business Advisor (Employment and Enterprise Team)

Matt Parsonage Programme Team Programme Manager - Health, Sport & Leisure

Sarah Pfeiffer Programme Team Town Centre Manager (Employment and Enterprise Team)

Austen Reid Hyde Housing Association Board Member

Martin Ryan Programme Team Programme Manager - Crime & Community Safety

Geoff Sorrell Lewisham College Board Member

Christine Speed 170 Community Project – Voluntary Sector Board Member

Angela Taylor Resident Resident Board Member Keith Taylor Local Business Board Member

Giles Tofield Programme Team Research Officer - Finance & Resources Team

Lil Virgo Resident Resident Board Member Muriel White Resident Resident Board Member Annette Wightman Metropolitan Police Board Member Clive Wilson Programme Team Chief Executive

New Deal for Communities National Evaluation Partnership Report (New Cross Gate, Lewisham)

TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .................................................................................................. i

- The Partnership's Year ......................................................................................................i - Key Achievements.............................................................................................................i - The Community: Cohesion, Equalities and Engagement .................................................ii - Partnership Structures, Processes and Delivery ............................................................. iii - Stakeholders and Agencies: Partnership Working and Mainstreaming........................... iii - Development, Learning and Forward Planning ...............................................................iv - Overview of Achievement................................................................................................iv - Conclusions and Key Policy Issues..................................................................................x 1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 1

2. The Partnership's Year...................................................................................... 2

3. Key Achievements............................................................................................. 5

4. The Community: Cohesion, Equalities and Engagement ........................... 12

5. The NDC Partnership: Structures, Processes and Delivery ........................ 16

6. Stakeholders and Agencies: Partnership Working and Mainstreaming..... 19

7. Development, Learning and Forward Planning ............................................ 22

8. Conclusions and Key Policy Issues .............................................................. 24

Appendix 1: Template and Commentary.............................................................. 28

1. Context .................................................................................................................. 28 2. Resident Involvement............................................................................................ 31 3. Partnership Structures and Systems..................................................................... 35 4. The Board.............................................................................................................. 55 5. Stakeholders and Agencies................................................................................... 62 6. Overview of Achievements.................................................................................... 66


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NDC Partnership Lewisham, New Cross Gate

Round 2

Local Authority (incl. CPA score) LB Lewisham (rated “Good” 2002, 2003, 2004)

Author Paul Convery and Lisa McCrindle

Date December 2004

The Partnership's year The latest year has been the NDC’s busiest and most effectively focussed. Fundamental change started in Spring 2003 with the recruitment of a new staff team and a thorough re-appraisal of the NDC’s strategy. In the period since then, there has been a rapid transformation of the NDC’s programme, its culture, and relationships with external organisations.

The NDC has a strong suite of projects and services that form a coherent and effective programme. It has an innovative plan of future projects and is well placed to embark on a challenging capital programme. The Performance Management system has recorded New Cross Gate moving from being a “weak” partnership to being “good” within the course of the most recent year.

The NDC has benefited from much improved leadership, good management and an increased involvement of many mainstream public agencies. These have brought the Partnership to a point where the NDC has become an effective organisation that is delivering tangible results. It has a well chaired Board that functions effectively and is focussed on decision-taking, oversight and future strategy. The Board was refreshed during the year with the arrival of new resident Board members after an election process characterised by an active contest and a relatively high voter turnout.

The NDC’s financial position remains healthy. During its first two years, relatively little significant expenditure was incurred so that, by the end of Year 3, it had spent only £7.5m of the total £45m allocated – leaving 83% available for subsequent years. Commitments made in year 4 mean that the Partnership has now begun to reach a mature rate of spend and will need to begin tapering-off its revenue commitments within about the next two years.

The programme has been organised into 5 main themes and theme groups have been re-established to guide each area of the programme. During the year, each theme group agreed a strategy and plan which reviewed the vision and strategic outcomes for each theme and identified priorities that would help to achieve the goals. The whole staff team has now been restructured to reflect the theme priorities and match the future programme requirements.

As a result, the Partnership has firmly put behind it a history of indecision, disagreement, low morale and limited, ineffective activity.

Key achievements The NDC’s revenue programme has become a more coherent suite of projects and services that are designed to meet the vision and objectives of the 10 year delivery plan. Revenue spending is well planned and executed and the Partnership is ready to undertake a number of major physical developments. The NDC promoted a comprehensive urban master-planning exercise during the year which has set an agreed template for the long-term physical development of the area. As a result the NDC will steer some direct development –


notably the new NDC Centre that will combine and health and wellbeing services with community facilities and some commercial and cultural activities. The master-plan has achieved good leverage for the NDC over the traffic routing and public transport patterns of the area and has set a template for development of the High Street.

Amongst the most successful revenue projects undertaken by the NDC have been:

• A number of high visibility refurbishment projects to improve the public realm

• Police and Neighbourhood Wardens working at full strength – with a commitment to a dedicated police team early in 2005

• Improved public engagement – mainly through the theme groups – but also with young people, local businesses and community organisations

• Complete reconfiguration of employment and enterprise services through a new street-front agency – including Jobcentre Plus

• Launch of a youth engagement strategy cutting across several themes

• Expansion of the support programme to primary schools in the area

• A suite of health, sports and leisure projects

• Re-launch of the NDC’s Community Development project

• A new grants “chest” allocating funds to individual social entrepreneurs

• Highly successful public events including the Summer Festival attended by over 1,000 people

The community: cohesion, equalities and engagement New Cross Gate has a young, diverse, growing but disadvantaged population. There is good evidence that New Cross Gate is changing for the better – and the NDC has played a tangible part in bringing this about. There is a stronger sense of community solidarity – with more people feeling they can influence change within their area and more people feeling part of a community. The role of the NDC is clearly identified by many residents in having played a part in changing the area – and the evidence indicates that economic and social conditions are improving.

The NDC has not found it easy to engage significant numbers of people in the neighbourhood. It is an area in which many people work long, atypical hours and are extremely mobile. Population diversity and the younger age profile of the area mean there are fewer means to engage people using traditional methods. Thus far, the main vehicles for community engagement have been the re-established theme groups, good communication methods, support for voluntary organisations and a programme of very successful events of a various scale and interests.

New Cross Gate has a highly diverse population and the NDC has developed a strategy to promote equality through its programme. However BME engagement with the NDC is still quite low, although the number of BME led voluntary organisations involved in the NDC has increased. The staff team has a good understanding of the NDC’s ambition to promote fair access and engages in outreach and community engagement work and produces multi-lingual information services.

The Partnership has an equalities strategy and a staff team familiar with its broad intents. But the NDC needs to improve its reach into harder-to-help communities by implementing a strategy to use more imaginative communication methods, particularly in minority languages. Although the Partnership is familiar with the race equality agenda relating to settled BME populations, it is still learning how to support more recently arrived people, particularly refugees.


Partnership structures, processes and delivery The Partnership has seen a marked improvement in the quality of its leadership and management. The Board has a confident and mature character and it consequently functions effectively. It is well chaired, efficiently serviced and its members are clear about their roles. It has good representation from many of the major service providers or strategic organisation in North Lewisham and this helps to give the Partnership real strength. New resident members who were elected in May 2004 took to their roles quite easily and have served to reinforce the legitimacy and mandate of the Board. The Board is better focussed on the long-term objectives of the Partnership and benefits from a structure of sub-committees, theme groups and sub-groups that have been established to undertake project development and appraisal tasks.

The stability of the Board has been reinforced by the re-structure and recruitment of a permanent staff team which together have given the NDC a sense of stability and resilience that have generated further confidence in the organisation – particularly amongst external public agencies.

The Partnership also has planning, appraisal and monitoring procedures that are very sound. There is a robust financial management system and reliable quarterly reporting to the Board. However, there is some improvement required in project risk and contingency assessments which are evidenced by regular under-spend and activity slippage.

Good leadership and management, sound systems and a coherent programme are also underpinned by effective delivery arrangements. Most of the NDC’s projects rely on external organisations for delivery and the theme managers are competent at handling the varied challenges of quite complex project management. However, project information is not always available in a timely fashion and, whilst the NDC has a good understanding of how individual projects fit into their overall programme, projects themselves do not. Many still tend to see themselves as discrete service providers concentrating on their own activity and expertise.

Stakeholders and agencies: partnership working and mainstreaming After 18 months of solid recovery, external agencies have gained more confidence in the Partnership and, during the year, this has led to considerably more collaboration with the NDC. Positive new relationships have been developed with Goldsmiths College and Jobcentre Plus whilst good working has been consolidated with the police service, primary and secondary schools, Hyde Housing and the Borough Council at various levels. Transport for London is engaged as are a number of economic agencies in the Borough and London-wide. However, the NDC has struggled during the year to fully engage with the Primary Care Trust to an extent seen elsewhere between a PCT and NDC.

Not all of these relationships have led to similar outcomes however. Many partners are keen to be involved with the NDC’s project delivery and appear to be open-minded about mainstreaming services. But there remain institutional obstacles to their practical commitment to the co-delivery of NDC projects or to aligning their mainstream resources with the NDC strategy or specifically concentrate services in the NDC area. Jobcentre Plus and the police service are very successful examples of this working well – where both agencies have a good alignment between the NDC’s objectives and their own.

The main obstacles to greater mainstream involvement are threefold: public agencies have poor internal communication between their strategic decision-taking levels and their operational staff; previous low confidence in the NDC has taken longer than expected to dissipate; public agencies (and to some extent the NDC) tends to see mainstreaming as simply being the expectation, that after time limited funding expires, the public agency is expected to absorb the costs. For these reasons, a Public Service Panel for New Cross Gate would help both the NDC and the public agencies to understand how mainstreaming must be a collaborative endeavour from start to finish. It would also help to quantify the current pattern of mainstream services in the neighbourhood.

So far, the best examples of mainstreaming in New Cross Gate are:


Crime and community safety – joint investment in better policing using uniformed MPS officers with the NDC’s wardens service; and a commitment by the MPS to introduce a dedicated team of police officers and PCSOs

Housing and physical environment – a growing, productive relationship with Hyde housing and a strong prospect of changes to the traffic routing and public transport services as a result of Transport for London’s involvement in the master-planning.

Employment and enterprise – substantial external support from the LDA, Goldsmiths College, the ESF and from Jobcentre Plus.

Education – increased adult learning services from Lewisham College and the Crossways Academy

Development, learning and forward planning The NDC is a much improved, better-managed and resilient organisation. It has reviewed its long term objectives, reorganised its programme and put in place a credible monitoring and evaluation framework. It has an engaged board, an effective staff team and a supportive group of mainstream public agencies. With the early years behind it, the NDC has a very good chance of achieving its main goal – to fundamentally transform the neighbourhood.

Its next stage of planning is critical however. The NDC has already had one false start and it cannot afford to stumble. The year 5 delivery plan will determine the shape of the NDC’s remaining lifespan – its capital investments, the overall profile of its revenue funds and the outline of its likely plan to permanently embed change in the neighbourhood. The key questions are whether the NDC has learned sufficiently quickly how to develop long term sustainability alongside mainstream agencies; and whether it has fully grasped the economic changes that already impacting the area – and figured out how these can be exploited.

Overview of achievement

Theme Housing and the physical environment

Key issues

Perceptions about the area remain fairly low. Satisfaction with quality of life is some 10 percentage points lower than the national average. Under provision of open space, the effect of vandalism and experience of anti-social behaviour all result in poor standards of living. There is an acute shortage of suitable housing and the area has major problems caused by transport congestion and pollution. Although 80% of residents are satisfied with their housing, nearly a half of all residents would like to move from the area. A major undertaking for the Environment theme will involve the implementation and management of an Urban Design Strategy and Development Framework. This “master-plan” will decisively influence the long term transport, housing and environment of the area – along with a range of projects and services initiated by the NDC that aim to significantly improve the public realm in the shorter term.

Outputs

Eckington Gardens redevelopment completed in late 2003 Environmental improvements to the five “squares” on the

Winslade Estate Improvements to a parade of shops on the Somerville Estate Developing a small play park in Robert Lowe Close Kender School fencing and gateway Refurbishment of Besson Street Gardens A programme of public artwork in the area

Mainstreaming The Partnership has developed a good relationship with the planning authorities of the Borough and TfL.


Police and community wardens working well together with wardens able to develop a helpful role as environment-watchers. There are some difficulties still evident between the Partnership and the Environment Department at LBL in achieving satisfactory standards for cleanliness in the area.

Key achievements

Successfully commissioning the area master-plan and ensuring a strong commitment from the Borough planners, Transport for London and other major agencies to support its conclusions. Early gains from this include the commitment by TfL and LBL to redesign the traffic routing within the NDC area. There have been a number of high profile refurbishments of public spaces – notably the approval of and likely early implementation of the refurbishment of the Somerville Adventure Playground. The general improvement works to highways and to street and estate lighting means the area looks better cared for. Influence with the Borough appears to have helped to improve environmental services in the area – fly tipping has reduced and abandoned cars are being removed speedily. General street cleansing services and refuse collection are judged to have improved.

Intermediate outcomes

There is some evidence of improved outcomes. Although slightly more people say that litter and rubbish represent a serious problem than in 2002, the percentage of people who say the area has worsened overall has declined and now matches the national average. However the proportion of people who say that quality of life in the area is very good or fairly good remains 10 percentage points below the national average.

Theme Crime

Key issues Fear of crime against the person remains prevalent amongst half the population over a quarter of residents feel “very unsafe” outside after dark. Overall crime levels are reported to have declined but still remain high even by London standards. About 1 in 6 residents have experienced some form of crime in the last year. There is a growing perception that local youths represent a problem related to gang activity, drug misuse, challenging behaviour and low level criminality.

Outputs Street and estate lighting upgrade programme Neighbourhood Wardens at full strength Rapid Reaction CCTV project implemented

Mainstreaming Close working relationship with police service – at both operational and strategic levels. This will be under-scored in 2005 by the establishment of a “Safer Neighbourhood” service with dedicated police officers and PCSOs.

Key achievements The re-established theme group is energetic, enthusiastic and strongly supported by the police service. There has been continued success of the Wardens programme and the improvements to street and estate lighting have been well received by residents. There are excellent linkages with the NDC’s environment programme.

Intermediate outcomes There has been some reduction in reported crime and a decline in the fear of crime – albeit relatively modest. However, the proportion of residents experiencing crime – burglary, assault or vehicle theft – in


the last 12 months rose from 16% to 19% between 2002 and 2004.

Theme Worklessness

Key issues There are relatively low household income levels in the neighbourhood whilst employment and economic activity rates are worse than the Borough average. One in ten households receives a weekly income of less than £100 whilst the employment rate for the area is 59% compared with 67% for the Borough, 70% for London and 75% for England. Identified barriers to work remain significant – particularly access to childcare. The local area has a weak local economy – it supports very few workplaces, there are low rates of business start-up and nearly a fifth of business premises are vacant. Historically, publicly-funded employability services have not served the area particularly well either – with Jobcentre Plus being concentrated more in Deptford. Business, skills and training studies show that innovative services are required to reach hard-to-serve population groups and to developed working relationships with employers, particularly in construction, ICT and creative industries.

Outputs The delivery of a previous employment and enterprise project was brought in-house in 2003 and re-launched with a wider remit as the Employment and Enterprise Agency – and located the Agency in the NDC’s new High Street location. Following a re-evaluation of the Partnership’s strategy, a theme group was re-established alongside the education theme group and a Youth Forum. A substantial number of new projects have been launched that provide business growth, training, social enterprise development and youth activity. In particular the NDC has supported:

A Town Centre Management project The 150 member New Cross Gate Youth Collective Shopfront improvement programme A new Business Forum ICT training Employment advice delivered with Jobcentre Plus

Mainstreaming The NDC has become a partner in the Sustainable Enterprise Academy (with the London Development Agency, Creative Lewisham and Goldsmith College). The College is a University of London institution with considerable strength in the creative arts and has a substantial presence just outside the NDC area. The NDC is examining ways in which local people can benefit from developments such as Convoys Wharf and major capital projects in the NDC area – particularly redevelopment by Hyde Housing – that may generate local jobs. The Partnership has developed a good relationship with Jobcentre Plus and now benefits from Jobcentre Plus advisors located in the Employment and Enterprise Agency and from the involvement of the Deptford Action Team for Jobs.

Key achievements The NDC has markedly improved the overall effectiveness of its employment theme work. Previously all activity was undertaken through a poorly performing project that appeared to replicate existing mainstream services. The new approach offers a wider range of services aimed at local economic development, employment support and business growth. The full engagement of Jobcentre Plus has


been a significant achievement and location of the Employment and Enterprise Agency to the High Street was an important strategic decision that is helping to transform its effectiveness.

Intermediate outcomes There has not been any measurable increase in the NDC area employment rate and the “unemployed, seeking work” rate has remained steady at 10% of the adult population. The proportion of workless households is also effectively unchanged and the proportion of individuals receiving a non-employed state benefit is still 20%. However, there has been an apparently sharp reduction in the number of very poor households with the proportion of households earning less than £100 per week dropping from 17% to 10% - although this is still twice the national average. However, there is no clear evidence that this improvement is directly attributable to NDC activity.

Theme Education

Key issues New Cross Gate has a higher than average proportion of young people but has relatively few youth facilities. Primary and secondary schools serving the area have variable achievement rates. The stock of adult skills is lower than average and the area has a large population whose first language is not English. Supporting children and families through the transition from primary school to secondary school is seen as a key issue by local people.

Outputs Deptford (secondary) school truancy project leading to improved attendance

Community school support programme supporting improved pupil achievement

Business mentoring project supplying staff from companies to help raise aspirations and attainment

Projects to stimulate family learning and library use ICT support for local pupils attending the Academy

Mainstreaming There is limited evidence of mainstreaming: the Partnership is funding additional services in the area’s schools albeit with some matched funding attracted. Although there are strong links with all the schools in the area, the NDC has not yet been able to establish relationships and collaboration with the LSC or LEA. Relationships with Lewisham College should soon concentrate more mainstream learning services – mainly for adults – into the neighbourhood. In the coming year, the NDC is likely to support an Essential Skills project to ensure higher levels of ICT, numeracy, literacy and language skills amongst adults in the area. A feasibility study may be commissioned to create a neighbourhood learning centre in the NDC area which, to be viable, would be expected attract mainstream revenue and capital resources.

Key achievements The Education theme group was re-established and has steered two new projects and maintained six existing projects – all of which support local schools and parents to improve pupil attainment.

Intermediate outcomes The three primary schools in the area have shown good performance over the last 3 years. Edmund Waller is continuing to improve (and is considerably better than the Borough average); Monson is steadily improving (although it is still below the Borough average); Kender continues to sustain good results and is above the Borough average). Deptford Green secondary school which serves the area has not seen


a significant rise in achievement at GCSE level with only 34% achieving A*-C grades in 2003 (compared with the Borough average of 39% and the England average of 54%) and attainment has broadly remained at this level for 4 years. Against this background, satisfaction amongst parents in the NDC area seems to have dropped between 2002 and 2004 – from 71% to 66% for primaries and from 59% to 48% for secondary schools. Adult skill circumstances have changed too, although there is unlikely to be any significant attributable effect from the NDC. The proportion of adults participating in education or training over the previous 12 months (excluding current students) has risen from 23% to 31% whilst the number who feel they have a basic skill need has also dropped. The population that has no qualifications has remained pretty well unchanged so still constitutes a fifth of the working age population.

Theme Health, sport and leisure

Key issues The NDC’s Health Impact Assessment showed that a comprehensive range of economic, environment, social, lifestyle and biological factors have led to poor health outcomes for many residents. Poor health and wellbeing is related to a number of conditions:

lifestyle and sexual health related risks social isolation amongst older people poor mental health conditions unbalanced diet, alcohol and addictive drug use

There is only one GP practice within the NDC area and this alone accounts for 60% of the area’s registered population. There is only one pharmacy, two dental practices and no optician. Other specific service weaknesses in the area include:

a limited number of sport and healthy lifestyle activities a lack of childcare facilities unhygienic street environment and poor provision of open

space

Outputs The Health Impact Assessment steering group has been developed into the core of a re-launched Health theme group established to guide the programme. However, the theme group has only limited links with education and environment and is relatively preoccupied with sexual and mental health issues. Projects in this area include:

Lifestyle Opportunities for Older People – personal safety help and a range of sports and leisure classes and activities.

Complementary Health – providing classes and clinics in Osteopathy, reflexology and yoga; self defence classes

Sports activities including an accredited football training programme and other after-school and holiday sports

A healthy eating project run with the PCT. Lion project – sports activities primarily for disabled children

– sponsored by Millwall FC Sexual health project developed and delivering referrals and

advice – that includes a Community Nurse service. The Somerville Adventure playground redevelopment – in conjunction with the Hyde Housing – represents a major new facility for sports and recreational activity. A number of other sites within the neighbourhood are being identified for further small-scale sports facilities.

Mainstreaming Nearly all the health, sports and recreational activities are being


directly funded by the NDC although a number of institutions – Haberdashers’ Aske’s school, Milwall FC and the London Towers basketball club – are involved in delivering some services. There are projects that integrate the Triangle schools with the Borough’s (Government funded) initiative to improve PE in primary schools. However, the PCT and NDC have not yet identified a clear “hook” that will engage mainstream health services – although the new NDC Centre will be used to re-house GP services and accommodate other lifestyle and well-being services. The PCT at a senior executive level has not clearly understood the potential for collaboration whilst PCT representation on the NDC Board does not appear to yield any practical benefits.

Key achievements A number of projects are beginning to increase sport and leisure activities in the area and provide some supplementary services for young people at risk and others with poor health conditions. The board has now approved the NDC Centre which will contain a range of “Healthy Living Centre” services. Access to health services in the area has begun to improve, not least with the opening of a new NHS walk-in centre immediately east of the NDC area.

Intermediate outcomes There are few clearly identifiable outcomes although there has been a small reduction in the numbers of residents who smoke and, amongst those using GP services, a reasonably encouraging improvement in ease of access to services.

Theme Community development

Key issues New Cross Gate has a quite transient, diverse and numerically large population and local leadership is relatively weak and under-developed in the neighbourhood. However, the area has some well-established local organisations – such as the 170 Community Project and the Somerville Adventure Playground – and a history of activism amongst tenants and the area’s ethnic minorities. Compared with other parts of Lewisham, however, voluntary and community organisations are less well developed and there is a limited infrastructure of support to new groups and limited experience and capacity to provide services. Developing a stronger sense of community ownership and a culture of responsibility will take some time. The community development functions of the NDC are key to ensuring that residents have greater involvement in the organisation and that the NDC will reach the end of its 10 year period with strong succession arrangements in place.

Outputs The Community Chest has had a reasonable level of take-up and the New Cross Gate Unlimited project has begun to be marketed and is already attracting interest

Substantial volume of publicity and information – through newsletters, advertisements and public consultation events

The Summer Programme – which gave community organisations good experience of planning and implementing small projects and services

Direct support to small groups particularly the All Nations Association, Somerville Adventure Playground, Afghan Association, the 170 Project and the African Community Partnership.

Community Spirit, the Summer Festival and other public events have attracted substantial public attendance and have


also contributed to raising awareness of the NDC. Establishing a Youth Forum, Business Forum, Community

Development forum Small scale projects - a local history group, IT courses for

older people, a hat-making project; Black History project, and a carol service trip

Involvement of local people in major cross-programme strategies and enquiries, particularly Health Impact Assessment, Community Business Audit and the Youth Strategy

Support for local civic action groups such as the Friends of Besson Street Gardens and the Artists Forum

Mainstreaming Voluntary and community organisations are now engaged in a reasonably wide range of jointly delivered services – mainly in the education, community safety and health domains. There are some examples of these delivery organisations beginning to tap mainstream resources from the PCT and Jobcentre Plus, for example. Through its community development project, “Community Works”, the NDC will implement its original Delivery Plan commitment to establish a Public Services Panel or other mechanism to more systematically influence the investment and service decisions of the major public agencies in the neighbourhood.

Key achievements The Summer Programme was delivered by substantially more community organisations than in the previous year and has an explicit emphasis on giving community organisations experience of planning and implementing small projects and services – with support delivered through the Community Development team for smaller and newer organisations. Groups and individuals have also been involved in successful activity through Community Spirit, the Summer Festival and other public events that have attracted substantial public attendance and have also contributed to raising awareness of the NDC. The NDC has also undertaken several major public involvement exercises across different themes of the programme. The most significant are the production of a master-plan for the neighbourhood, a substantial feasibility study testing the viability of a Healthy Living Centre and an All Nations Centre and an intensive exercise to redevelop the Somerville Adventure Playground.

Intermediate outcomes Greater community involvement: the latest information shows a rise in the number of people who feel they can influence decisions that affect the area. The NDC has set a target for 2010 of a 40% positive response rate and its 2004 target was to maintain parity with the national equivalent figure. In fact, the latest MORI survey shows a positive response rate of 31% which is higher than the national average and is a 5 point increase on the 2002 baseline. Increased number of community groups/organisations involved in the direct delivery of NDC services: In year 3, some 15 organisations have been involved with the NDC across its entire programme – compared with a benchmark figure of 12 for year 1.

Conclusions and key policy issues The Partnership has implemented many of the recommendations contained in last year’s evaluation report. The Partnership has developed extremely well over the year and is now at a stage where future recommendations are focused on changes that, if implemented, could potentially move New Cross Gate into the ranks of the best performing and most effective NDCs.


1. Partners

Over the last year, the NDC has developed stronger relationships with the mainstream agencies – especially Jobcentre Plus – although it is still unable to engage with the LSC or Connexions service – which is important in an area with such a high proportion of young people. Business and commercial interests still remain elusive although an IT company and construction firms were approached during the year. As the programme develops a stronger economic dimension, the engagement of private sector leadership will be essential to give the Partnership more credibility and to inject some commercial acumen. The Business Forum is a very important first step in this process but mainstream support through Business Link for London still needs to be engaged to ensure the NDC does not simply supplicate some existing business support services.

2. Communicate better

The Partnership is also communicating better with residents – without entirely relying on traditional tools like newsletters and meetings. It has used bus stop posters, electronic media and public events to get its message across. It has sponsored education, youth, environment and health events to reach new audiences. Slowly it is beginning to benefit from the most effective communication medium, word-of-mouth recommendation.

However, the Partnership still has to develop its own listening methods. It still relies on some formal consultation tools and has not engaged in any substantive market research to really understand the finer grain of opinion and aspiration in the area.

3. Performance management

Last year we recommended that the NDC should “fix the MIS” by improving its monitoring, reporting, analysis and measurement of results. This has been done with enthusiasm and the Partnership now benefits from a much better understanding of the baseline and progress towards its key outcomes. As a result, it is able to start fine-tuning the programme based on this evidence.

4. Diversity

The Partnership still has some way to go before it is fully engaged with the area’s considerable population diversity. The neighbourhood’s ethnic minorities make-up a considerable proportion of New Cross Gate’s more disadvantaged population but are equally a potential strength for the area. The partnership still needs to understand the dynamics of these groups, their aspirations, barriers to integration and find ways of exploiting the strong self-help ethos, particularly amongst recent arrivals.

5. Continue to develop a coherent programme

Last year we said “stop delivering self-contained projects and get the different service providers to work together.” That recommendation chimed with the Partnership’s own ambitions and, as a consequence, the NDC’s programme has become much more coherent. It is no longer a collection of poorly inter-related projects and the rationale for all services is much clearer. Most of all, each theme group has determined its objectives and is seeking to commission services that meet these objectives.

Cross-theme linkages are better – especially between the environment and community safety themes – although the employment and education themes still need to have better links. Project themes are more focussed on the overall programme aims and all themes are becoming more mutually reinforcing.

The Partnership now needs to move beyond simply managing a good coherent programme – and monitoring its impacts. It needs to develop a long-term strategy to ensure that:

the NDC’s capital investments to improve the environment will be maintained by mainstream revenue;


efforts to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour have a permanent effect and are mainstreamed into the normal service patterns of the Borough and police;

initiatives to increase employment can be underpinned by a new entrepreneurial spirit, by economic growth in the area and a cultural change in attitude by residents towards employment in the new growth sectors and places of work;

improved educational attainment at primary school is continued into secondary and tertiary education, and that more people stay in the area once they have acquired higher level skills;

6. Educate the Projects

Although the NDC now has a clear view of how its different projects “fit-together” their service delivery partners – the projects themselves – do not. The Partnership needs to convey more clearly to projects how they individually contribute to the whole programme and to the overall vision and objective for the NDC. Projects still tend to see themselves as self contained, specialised activities. Because they are not yet fully bought-into the strategy for holistic regeneration, they still see the NDC primarily as a source of cash rather than an agent for long-term change in the neighbourhood.

7. Grow local leadership

The increased confidence and maturity of the NDC Board represent a considerable success. However, the skills of its members remain under-developed. The resident members understand their roles better and ask the right questions, but they still lack the sort of skills that are required if the board is to really drive the NDC forward. Individual confidence, knowledge and (some) technical expertise are required amongst the newer resident Board members if they are to take an active non-executive role. The NDC staff team should examine different ways of resourcing Board members so they can do this – like running surgeries and street or block meetings. Members already have access to home computers but they should be supported with more intensive ICT support – like an NDC email address and broadband access to an NDC virtual private network.

Few resident board members currently see themselves as having a leadership role and rely too much on the Chief Executive to “front” the organisation. The Board has now discussed a proposal to modestly remunerate members, so some individuals may find it easier to combine their work responsibilities with duties as Board members.

Over the next year, one or two individuals on the Board will have to emerge as local champions of the NDC. The Board has benefited hugely from having an independent chair – particularly through its difficult transition period. But within the next two years, a local person will need to step forward and assume this key role so that the NDC is led decisively at the board level as well as by its Chief Executive. Members of the Board need to start thinking about this during the coming year.

8. Get to grips with mainstreaming

The NDC has not yet decisively got a neighbourhood management approach underway and this must be a priority for the coming year. It has approved the second phase of community development programme which should establish a vehicle like a mainstream services panel and identify pilot opportunities to test models of neighbourhood management with larger public agencies.

9. Exploit the economic geography

The master-planning exercise has been one of the Partnership’s great achievements. Last year, we said that this could be one of the biggest and most influential area-wide initiatives promoted by the NDC. That has proved to be the case and the NDC must not lose momentum generated by this process – either with local people who were well engaged in the process, nor with the statutory planning authorities, especially TfL who have bought-into it. Few of the elements within the master-plan rely on any investment decisions by the NDC


itself – although the NDC’s determination to develop a flagship health, community and business centre in the heart of the area will be an important anchor to revitalising the High Street.

The plan will principally succeed if it influences the decisions of commercial investors and major public authorities. However, it needs to look further beyond the neighbourhood and engage with the new regeneration geography of the sub-region and position New Cross Gate to fully exploit opportunities for business growth, new housing, transportation and environmental sustainability. The NDC has begun to think more ambitiously than before. It is no longer just another Area Based Initiative. But it still needs to identify ways of benefiting from the economic growth of central London, the inner Thames Gateway area – especially the riverside.

New Deal for Communities National Evaluation 1 Partnership Report (New Cross Gate, Lewisham)

1. INTRODUCTION

This report presents the findings of evaluation relating to New Cross Gate NDC Partnership for the year 2004/5. It is one of a range of outputs arising from the third year of the National Evaluation of the New Deal for Communities programme. The report is based on a number of sources of evidence: • interviews with a range of stakeholders within and out with the NDC Partnership,

including staff, board members, residents and representatives of key partner agencies • interviews with representatives from Government Offices and other regional

stakeholders • observation of mid-year review and other meetings • documentary analysis of delivery plans and other relevant material A similar report has been produced for each of the other 38 NDC Partnerships. The National Evaluation website is regularly updated and can be found at: http://ndcevaluation.adc.shu.ac.uk/ndcevaluation/Home.asp. Case studies and good practice guides arising from the evaluation have informed reneal.net: www.renewal.net. The remainder of this report is structured as follows: 2. The Partnership's year 3. Key Achievements 4. The Community: Cohesion, Equalities and Engagement 5. Partnership Structures, Processes and Delivery 6. Stakeholders and Agencies: Partnership Working and Mainstreaming 7. Development, Learning and Forward Planning 8. Conclusions and Key Policy Issues Appendix 1: Templates and Commentary The views represented in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.


2. THE PARTNERSHIP'S YEAR

2.1. Summary of main programme activities over the past 12 months The year being reported represented the most positive period the Partnership has had since its launch. In mid 2004, the Partnership entered its fourth year considerably strengthened and with a strong suite of projects underway and planned – and the strong start has been thoroughly consolidated during the subsequent year.

Fundamental change within the NDC started in Spring 2003 with the arrival of a new Chief Executive. Recruitment of a new staff team and a fundamental re-appraisal of the NDC’s strategy have successfully transformed the organisation’s culture and its relationships with external organisations.

The latest year has been the NDC’s busiest and most effectively focussed. Many of the projects devised during the initial years have come to a conclusion and, whilst a number have been modified and continued, others have been closed down. Some have achieved the expected results but few have been absorbed by mainstream agencies where a continuing need has been demonstrated.

The NDC’s financial position remains good. During its first two years, relatively little significant expenditure was incurred so that by the end of Year 3, it had only spent £7.5m of the total £45m allocated.

Year 3 Total

allocated Year 4

planned

cumulative spend by

end Year 4

Percent spent by the end of

year 4 Community safety £2,014,200 £6,934,000 £629,200 £2,643,400 38% Education £1,013,100 £9,302,000 £796,400 £1,809,500 19% Employment & enterprise £502,900 £7,475,000 £1,141,400 £1,644,300 22% Health, sport and leisure £726,500 £5,489,000 £907,000 £1,633,500 30% Housing, environment & transport £1,143,500 £9,300,000 £473,300 £1,616,800 17% Community Development £828,400 £2,000,000 £516,100 £1,344,500 67% Management & administration £1,324,300 £4,500,000 £365,600 £1,689,900 38% Total £7,552,900 £45,000,000 £4,829,000 £12,381,900 28%

Reflecting the initially slow pace of development in the first 3 years of the programme, some 18% of all expenditure was accounted for by management and administration costs whilst, during year 4, the proportion will have dropped to just 8%. Nonetheless, this line of expenditure will have used up 38% of its 10 year allocation. Only community safety is anywhere close to a proportionate level of spend although Community Development will have spent two thirds of its allocation by the end of year 4.

By the end of year 3, the programme as a whole had spent only 17% of the £45 million allocation – but by the end of year 4, this will have risen to 28%. So whilst it has now reached a cash “burn-rate” of about 10% a year, some major capital expenditure is yet to be incurred. On the current profile, the Partnership has begun to reach a mature rate of spend and will need to begin tapering-off its revenue commitments within about the next two years.

2.2. Key events of the past year The programme was reorganised into 5 themes reflecting the NRU’s domains of neighbourhood renewal plus a community development theme. During the year under review, theme groups were established to guide each area of the programme – with a membership drawn from local residents and from the main public agencies. During the year, each theme group agreed a strategy and plan which reviewed the vision and strategic outcomes for each theme and identified priorities that would help to achieve the goals.


Overall progress of the NDC during its first two years was quite limited. Key elements of the initial programme were poorly planned and were found to be unrealistic to deliver. The original evidence base, although substantial in volume, proved to be inadequate to identify either the fundamental needs of the area or to help design a comprehensive set of interventions. Much of the early commissioned projects were self-contained, unconnected to other projects and relied on quite simplistic justification. Furthermore, the Partnership suffered from a number of long-term structural personnel problems which undermined morale and performance and led to missed opportunities and wasted resources. Much of the original enthusiasm within the community was dissipated by poor management, uncertainty and disagreement about the Partnership’s direction.

Whilst a little of the NDC’s history still lingers and occasionally hinders progress, the perception and performance of the Partnership is now fundamentally sound. Many of the statutory agencies that had previously found the NDC difficult to engage with now routinely describe the Partnership as “having a clear direction … well managed … stable … and effective”. The Performance Management system has recorded the Partnership moving from being a “weak” partnership to being “good” within the course of the most recent year. As a result, the involvement of main public agencies in the Borough has improved considerably.

The Partnership has firmly moved on from the legacy of its first two years which were characterised by indecision, disagreement, low morale and very limited activity. The Board showed a determination in the latter part of 2002 to press-on with a vision of change for the area. It resolved to develop a clear programme that matched the vision and to recruit a staff team capable of delivery and to install robust financial, appraisal and monitoring systems and processes.

Significantly improved leadership, good management and increased involvement of many mainstream public agencies have brought the Partnership to a point where the NDC has become an effective organisation that is delivering tangible results. It has a permanently established staff team organised to a new structure that matches the requirements of the delivery plan.

A number of major physical developments are now being realistically planned with a good chance of implementation in the next two years. Longer term changes to the neighbourhood – its traffic congestion, its gateway points and public transport facilities – are likely because TfL has become committed to the outcome of a successful master-planning exercise. The NDC Centre – combining a healthy living centre with other community facilities – will become a reality in the next two years.

The current delivery plan contains a portfolio of well planned services and interventions. Amongst the most effective have been:

• Continued refurbishment of public spaces – including the Somerville Adventure Playground

• The impact of a street and estate lighting upgrade programme

• Neighbourhood Wardens working at full strength and a good working relationship with the police

• Improved public engagement – establishing the Youth Forum, Business Forum and Community Forum – and supporting for local civic action groups such as the Friends of Besson Street Gardens and the Artists Forum

• Launch of the Employment and Enterprise Agency located in the NDC’s High Street location – and a suite of business growth, training, social enterprise development and youth activity

• Launch of the youth engagement strategy with a cultural industries theme

• Involvement of Jobcentre Plus and its advisors in the area

• Expansion of the support programme to primary schools in the area


• Attendance and achievement support at Deptford Green secondary school

• Projects that have engaged the Crossways Academy with the NDC and supported local pupils

• A number of health, sports and leisure projects

• Launch of the New Cross Gate Unlimited project which will allocate grants to individual social entrepreneurs

• A suite of successful public events including Community Spirit and the Summer Festival

2.3. Changes in the regeneration context The NDC has a relatively limited involvement with the Lewisham Strategic Partnership although there is a very active member of the Partnership on the NDC Board. The area does not benefit from Neighbourhood Renewal Funding primarily because the NDC has its own substantial line of ODPM funding. However, the NDC is beginning to engage with the LSP partly in order to better inform its own early efforts at engaging mainstream agencies.

Over the past year, Jobcentre Plus has become more closely involved in direct delivery of services alongside the NDC and this is a major change on 12 months previously. Consequently, New Cross Gate benefits from an extension of Action Team for Jobs into the area. The Lewisham Community Cohesion pathfinder has been launched although there is only a limited relationship developed with the NDC. There are Sure Start services being delivered in the area, but this represents a service priority that has remained relatively unknown to the NDC. Over the coming year, it is likely that the partnership will pay more attention to childcare needs and to early years services.

2.4. Main items of discussion at Board meetings Board meetings – held roughly every five to six weeks – are now well attended, well managed and focussed on review or decision-taking. The membership changed following the May 2004 elections but there is a good sense of continuity even amongst those who have recently joined. The chair provides strong leadership and guidance whilst the information presented to the Board is clear and relevant. Because theme groups are managing a considerable amount of preparatory discussion and planning, the Board is no longer swamped with detail. The Chief Executive’s progress report can sometimes take longer than expected to progress as it offers some members a chance to comment or question many different aspects of the NDC’s operations. Nearly all agendas are structured to include one or two discussions about developments that have significant consequences and every alternate meeting will include a quarterly financial report. Each meeting will usually have an agenda item that allows the Board to review progress with a major project or service and, increasingly, the results of recent evaluations will be tabled, although not necessarily stimulating discussion.


3. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

This section reviews the achievements of the NDC Partnership in the past 12 months, its outputs and any intermediate outcomes.

3.1. Robustness of the partnership The Board is managed in a business-like fashion by an independent chair whose role has proved to be very effective in helping to focus the board on key decisions and realising their aspirations. There is good representation from most of the major service provider or strategic organisation in North Lewisham and this helps to give the Partnership real strength. New resident members were elected in May 2004 and took to their roles quite easily.

The Board therefore has a more confident and mature character. It functions well with its members considerably clearer about their role and focussed therefore on maintaining the vision for the area, on oversight, review and long term decisions taking. Board sub-committees, theme groups and sub-groups have been fully established and a substantial volume of routine work and project development tasks are delegated to them.

As a result, the NDC’s planning processes are considerably improved and this was evidenced by Year 4 Delivery Plan which clearly set out the vision behind the NDC’s programme, the conditions the NDC sought to change and a clear articulation of the evidence and justification for the interventions the NDC would pursue.

Senior representatives from many key public agencies sit on the Board but not all of these organisations have a significant influence on the NDC’s strategies. Conversely, the NDC is not achieving significant influence over the priorities and service patterns of those agencies. So, these senior personnel are providing helpful technical advice and experience of good governance, but their presence does not necessarily guarantee the engagement of their own agencies.

The NDC is now a fundamentally strong organisation. It enjoys good leadership – with a Board that sets a clear direction and a staff team that is skilled, motivated and well managed.

3.2. Programme coherence and management The Partnership now has a coherent strategy and a delivery plan that reflects it. It has wound down a large number of projects and services that were generally contingent and reactive to an unconnected set of needs – many of which simply gap-filled a number of shortcomings in the area’s public services. Some of these projects are still in the programme, but they now fit into a wider portfolio of interventions that, together, better address the baseline conditions and the NDC’s strategy for change.

By re-establishing the theme groups, the Partnership re-imposed a framework on its services and required its managers to position projects and services in a logic chain: understanding baseline conditions; identifying requirements; project appraisal, service delivery; and monitoring and evaluating impact on the underlying conditions. This framework also requires projects to demonstrate cross-theme relevance so that projects contribute towards inter-related outcomes. Each theme group has recently reviewed its objectives and developed a strategy and its priorities for interventions.

As a result, the Partnership is now delivering a wide range of projects that are well managed. All project managers have a well ingrained understanding of the need to show logical links between evidence of need, the programme objectives and activities they are responsible for. More importantly, the Partnership thoroughly reviewed its baseline and the suite of output and outcome indicators and rationalised these to be more manageable and measurable.

3.3. Resources, financial management and administration The Partnership implemented significant improvements to its financial administration during 2003 and its systems and procedures have proved to be extremely reliable and well


managed. Financial controls are good, management reports provide accurate and timely data on performance and the overall programme position. System K is installed and provides a good standard of financial and output information required – although there are still some weaknesses in the quality and accuracy of inputs to the system from projects.

The project appraisal and approval system was also thoroughly overhauled and the Board’s involvement in individual decisions ceased. A two-stage process allows proposals to be designed and fine-tuned in response to first-stage comments before proceeding to full appraisal. The approval process also ensures that projects are better aligned with theme requirements and to the strategic requirements identified by each theme group.

The Partnership has now overcome the legacy of serious personnel problems that hampered its first two years of operation. The staff team is well managed, has good motivation and performs to reasonably consistent work standards. Its morale and team spirit is much stronger and individual staff members display a degree of confidence that encourages greater knowledge sharing and collaboration. The staff team is now permanently established and, following a restructure in the latter part of the 2004, it now better reflects the programme requirements.

Because the staff team is considerably more stable than in previous periods, this has improved productivity and given external agencies considerably more confidence in the skills and knowledge of the NDC’s staff. However, the structure still encourages some silo-like behaviour and the administrative burdens placed on some staff stifle creative work and reduce the incentive to work face-to-face with people in the community. For nearly 18 months the staff team has been housed in decent quality office accommodation with a small number of core and project staff recently moving to a shop-fronted location on the High Street.

3.4. Diversity, race equality and fair access New Cross Gate has a highly diverse population – with at least half the population being non-white. Although part of the population is extremely stable, another part is highly transient and the non-white population spans both these categories. The area has an excellent history of harmonious community relations but inequalities persist underpinned by race and ethnicity.

The NDC has developed a strategy to promote equality through its programme but BME engagement by the NDC is still disproportionately low, although the number and extent of BME led voluntary organisations involved in the NDC has increased. The staff team has a good understanding of the NDC’s ambition to promote fair access and engages in outreach and community engagement work and produces multi-lingual information services. The Board and staff team themselves present a reasonably diverse mix.

However, the Partnership needs to improve its reach into harder-to-help communities by implementing an agreed strategy that foresees more imaginative communication methods, particularly in minority languages. It also needs to ensure that all parts of the organisation have an orientation towards minorities – and not simply the community engagement functions. Lastly, it needs to better track and engage with smaller but distinctive population groups, particularly more recent arrivals in the UK

3.5. Working with other agencies The Partnership has developed some very positive new relationships with key agencies. Jobcentre Plus, the police service, primary and secondary schools are closely involved as is the Borough Council at various levels. The Borough planners and Transport for London have been successfully recruited through a very effective and practical master-planning exercise. Relations with Goldsmiths College have been successfully developed as have links with a number of economic agencies in the Borough and London-wide.

The key variable behind such a marked improvement is the change in perception of the NDC. After 18 months of solid recovery, it now has gained a credibility that gives many public agencies considerable confidence. Many of these agencies are involved in the design


and delivery of NDC projects. However, only a few agencies have modified their services in the area in response to the NDC’s influence. In the coming year, there may be a Public Services Panel established to seek change in the investment and service decisions of the major public agencies in the neighbourhood.

However, there are still agencies without which the NDC will not perform to its maximum potential. During the coming year, a major effort is required to “crack” the Primary Care Trust. On the face of it, there should be a considerable natural affinity between the NDC and the PCT, yet this has proven difficult to develop. Personnel from the PCT have been involved in the NDC for its full lifetime, yet this has not been converted into a thorough-going institutional relationship. Hyde Housing, the largest Registered Social Landlord in the area, has helped to deliver, for example, the redevelopment of the Somerville Adventure playground and Hyde is expected to play a more increasingly substantive role in the next year.

In the medium term, the Partnership will also need to engage more fully with the GLA – particularly the London Development Agency – and with Thames Gateway and the UDC that will manage much of the significant growth within the sub-region.

3.6. Working with residents and the community The NDC has made a significant breakthrough engaging with the community this year. The household survey shows that a stronger feeling of community is emerging – with more people feeling they can influence changes on their area, more people feeling part of a community and a stronger sense of solidarity emerging. The presence of the NDC is much more clearly felt by people in the area who recognise that the NDC itself has improved things in the area.

Engaging residents more directly in the NDC’s work has continued to prove difficult. However, the NDC has re-established its theme groups and benefited from a vigorous and refreshingly contested campaign to elect new resident Board members. The NDC has run a series of landmark and highly popular public events, notably the Summer Fair which have raised the NDC’s profile significantly. As a result of these formal and informal mechanisms, many more local people have become involved in the NDC’s programme. A number of new community organisations have been supported by the NDC and stronger, newer voluntary organisations may prove to be a resilient and lasting legacy of the NDC.

3.7. Learning, improvement and forward planning The NDC has become a fundamentally more robust and well managed organisation. It has good leadership, a reasonably engaged board, an effective staff team and a supportive group of mainstream public agencies. It has thoroughly reviewed its programme, re-established theme groups and tasked each one to produce a clearer strategy and priorities for its future services.

The Partnership now has a good monitoring and evaluation framework, a comprehensive and reliable baseline and a manageable number of indicators which directly relate to the outputs and intermediate outcomes of the programme. It now has a more simplified, but larger scale programme with a suite of projects and services that are increasingly commissioned by the Partnership rather than received from potential project “bidders”.

Through its master-planning process, the NDC has given itself the authority to argue for an ambitious transformation of the neighbourhood’s urban fabric. Although the long term strategy for the NDC is slowly emerging, its success will depend on the partnership engaging more thoroughly with the economic dynamics of the broader sub-region and its growth prospects. The Partnership is expected to make fundamental capital investment decisions based on this understanding of how New Cross Gate is already changing.


3.8. Progress by theme a) Worklessness

During the year, the Partnership launched its Employment and Enterprise Agency located in the NDC’s new High Street location. Following a re-evaluation of the Partnership’s strategy, a theme group was re-established alongside the education theme group and a Youth Forum. A substantial number of new projects have been launched that provide business growth, training, social enterprise development and youth activity. These include:

• A Town Centre Management project

• The 150 member New Cross Gate Youth Collective

• Shopfront improvement programme

• A new Business Forum

• ICT training

• Employment advice delivered with Jobcentre Plus

A year ago, the partnership had no relationship with Jobcentre Plus. This has changed markedly with Jobcentre Plus advisors located in the Employment and Enterprise Agency and the involvement of the Deptford Action Team for Jobs. The effectiveness of the Partnership’s employment work has dramatically improved in the last year and it supports a wider range of services aimed at local economic development, employment support and business growth.

Despite this, there is little evidence of significant change, yet. Over the past two years, both the employment and unemployment rates for the area have remained fairly constant and there has been little change in the number of workless households in the neighbourhood. Identified barriers to work remain significant – particularly access to childcare and the Partnership has not made any progress in either addressing this – either by identifying needs or by considering interventions.

The local area still has a weak local economy and supports very few workplaces. There are low rates of business start-up and nearly a fifth of business premises are vacant. However, the NDC has identified three key sectors in construction, ICT and creative industries and is beginning to develop a range of services addressing the business start-up and recruitment needs of firms in the area.

We judge however that the programme may be concentrating slightly too much on stimulating new jobs within the neighbourhood rather than connecting local residents with opportunities outside the immediate NDC area. For example, the NDC opened negotiations to secure the inward investment of an IT company based in central London. This arrangement would have involved a substantial net cost per additional job created in the neighbourhood. A project that should improve the vitality of the High Street and assist some existing business collectively is a good example of very localised economic development activity.

b) Education

The Education theme group was re-established and has steered two new projects and maintained six existing projects. Supporting children and families through the transition from primary school to secondary school is seen as a key issue by local people and the Partnership has responded with projects – all of which aim to improve pupil attainment.

• Deptford (secondary) school truancy project leading to improved attendance

• Community school support programme supporting improved pupil achievement

• Business mentoring project supplying staff from companies to help raise aspirations and attainment

• Projects to stimulate family learning and library use


• ICT support for local pupils attending the Academy

The primary schools serving the area have recorded some good Key Stage results – with attainment rising amongst the schools that previously scored lower than expected. Secondary school achievement remains below the Borough average however. Satisfaction amongst parents in the area – with both primary and secondary schools – seems to have declined.

The Partnership has begun to extend its services beyond school age children. It is planning to address the problem of low skills amongst the adult population by supporting an Essential Skills project to ensure higher levels of ICT, numeracy, literacy and language. However, adult skills have begun to improve already – with a rise in the numbers engaged in education and a reduction in the numbers who identify that they have a basic skills need.

c) Crime

Half the population retains a fear of crime against the person with over a quarter of residents reporting that they feel “very unsafe” outside after dark. Overall crime levels are reported to have declined but the proportion of residents experiencing burglary, assault or vehicle theft in the last 12 months has increased from 16% to 19%. There is a growing perception that local youths represent a problem related to gang activity, drug misuse, challenging behaviour and low level criminality.

The re-established theme group is energetic, enthusiastic and strongly supported by the police service. There has been continued success of the Wardens programme and the improvements to street and estate lighting have been well received by residents. There are excellent linkages with the NDC’s environment programme. The main outputs from the programme during the year are:

• Street and estate lighting upgrade programme

• Neighbourhood Wardens at full strength

• Rapid Reaction CCTV project implemented

The programme benefits from a close working relationship with police service – at both operational and strategic levels. This will be under-scored in 2005 by the establishment of a “Safer Neighbourhood” service with dedicated police officers and PCSOs.

d) Housing, environment and transport

Perceptions about the neighbourhood have begun to improve. The number of people who say the area has worsened overall has declined and this percentage now matches the national average. However the proportion of people who say that quality of life in the area is very good or fairly good remains 10 percentage points below the national average. The poor liveability ranking of the neighbourhood reflects the under provision of open space, the effect of vandalism and experience of anti-social behaviour. There is an acute shortage of suitable housing and the area has major problems caused by transport congestion and pollution. Although 80% are satisfied with their housing, nearly a half of all residents would like to move from the area.

The environment theme group has been re-established and has a widely drawn and very engaged membership. The theme group has had responsibility for the area’s Urban Design Strategy and Development Framework (the “master-plan”) which is likely to decisively influence the long term transport, housing and environment of the area. Flowing from this process, the Partnership has developed an excellent relationship with the Borough planning authorities and with Transport for London. Early gains also include the commitment by TfL and LBL to redesign the traffic routing within the NDC area.

General street cleansing services and refuse collection are judged to have improved and the quality of public realm is better following a programme of work to improve pavements and investment in new street and estate lighting. There is now less fly tipping and abandoned cars are being removed speedily.


The theme programme has also delivered a number of environmental improvement projects:

• Eckington Gardens redevelopment completed in late 2003

• Environmental improvements to the five “squares” on the Winslade Estate

• Improvements to a parade of shops on the Somerville Estate

• Developing a small play park in Robert Lowe Close

• Kender School fencing and gateway

• Refurbishment of Besson Street Gardens

• A programme of public artwork in the area

e) Health

The NDC theme group has been re-established – mainly building on the individuals that steered the Health Impact Assessment earlier in the NDC’s development. A key development during the year has been the decision to proceed with the “NDC Centre” which will feature elements of a healthy living centre – to re-house local GP services and accommodate other healthcare services.

The Partnership has also made considerable headway with the Somerville Adventure playground redevelopment which will represent a major new facility for sports and recreation for children and young people. A number of other sites within the neighbourhood are being identified for further small-scale sports facilities.

The health and wellbeing projects that have continued to run – or been developed during the year – include:

• Lifestyle Opportunities for Older People – personal safety help and a range of sports and leisure classes and activities.

• Complementary Health – providing classes and clinics in Osteopathy, reflexology and yoga; self defence classes

• Sports activities including an accredited football training programme and other after-school and holiday sports

• A healthy eating project run with the PCT.

• Lion project – sports activities primarily for disabled children – sponsored by Millwall FC

• Sexual health project developed and delivering referrals and advice – that includes a Community Nurse service.

Some sports and recreational activities are being delivered with Haberdashers’ Aske’s school, Milwall FC and the London Towers basketball club and there are projects integrating the Triangle schools with the Borough’s (Government funded) initiative to improve PE in primary schools.

f) Community development

The Partnership has invested staff and resources into increasing community involvement through the successful conclusion of its first Community Development project and the launch of a second programme during the year. The Partnership has recognised that its community development activity has to be geared towards developing a stronger sense of community ownership and a culture of responsibility so that the NDC will reach the end of its 10 year period with strong succession arrangements in place. Its main projects have been:

• The Community Chest and New Cross Gate Unlimited project

• Publicity and information through newsletters, advertisements and public consultation events


• The Summer Programme – which gave community organisations good experience of planning and implementing small projects and services

• Direct support to small groups particularly the All Nations Association, Somerville Adventure Playground, Afghan Association, the 170 Project and the African Community Partnership.

• Community Spirit, the Summer Festival and other public events have attracted substantial public attendance and have also contributed to raising awareness of the NDC.

• Establishing a Youth Forum, Business Forum and the Community Forum

• Small scale projects - a local history group, IT courses for older people, a hat-making project; Black History project, and a carol service trip

• Involvement of local people in major cross-programme strategies and enquiries, particularly Health Impact Assessment, Community Business Audit and the Youth Strategy

• Support for local civic action groups such as the Friends of Besson Street Gardens and the Artists Forum


4. THE COMMUNITY: COHESION, EQUALITIES AND ENGAGEMENT

This section reflects on community cohesion issues in the NDC area and looks at how the NDC is engaging in communities and addressing the full range of equalities issues.

4.1. Community overview New Cross Gate is a high density area consisting mainly of local authority and other social housing. Nearly 60% of homes are rented from the Council or Housing Associations and a further 12% are privately rented. Only 28% of homes in the area are privately owned – compared with the Lewisham average which is 50%. To the north and east, railway lines form a quite impermeable boundary with Deptford whilst south of the NDC area is the relatively affluent neighbourhood of Telegraph Hill.

Westwards the neighbourhood merges with Camberwell in a mix of Victorian-built housing and social housing of different periods. The area is dissected by major roads – the A2 into Central London and the A202 which forms the main East West route across inner south London. The centre of the neighbourhood features a triangular gyratory system for the A2 and the one-way flow of heavy traffic is one of the defining aspects of the area. In addition to road traffic, the area also has a busy rail and tube station which contributes to a feeling of transcience.

The housing tenure, the dominance of transport modes and the area’s physical geography strongly influence the character and identity of the neighbourhood. The High Street has is beginning to pick up trade and house prices have risen sharply, but the area still has a feeling of economic marginality.

The area has a volatile but potentially very resourceful population. It is young, diverse, growing and disadvantaged – but not critically so. According to the 2001 Census, just over a third of the population is aged less than 24. This makes the NDC area younger than Lewisham as a whole – with 23% of the population aged less than 16 and 14% who are aged 16 to 24. There are 1,100 households that have dependent children living in them (almost a third) – a proportion that is higher than the Lewisham and London averages by one and two percentage points respectively.

Census 2001 also shows that the non-white population comprised exactly half the population – having grown from just under a third according to the 1991 Census. Of the 8,300 population in the NDC area, 41% are White British, 9% are Irish or Other White. The largest non-white ethnic groups are Black British / Caribbean (16%) and Black British / African (17%). The South Asian population comprises just under 3% of the population. A third of the population was born outside the UK. Comparable figures for Lewisham show that 66% of the population is White with 12% and 9% being respectively Black British / Caribbean and Black British / African.

The non-white population grew slightly between 2002 and 2004 according to the MORI household surveys – which also shows that a quarter of residents do not have English as their first language – and this proportion has risen significantly in the last two years. Local evidence indicates that the most recent incoming population groups include many different nationals from southern and eastern Europe and refugees from the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia and increasingly from central Africa.

The 2004 Index of Deprivation ranking shows that, overall, the area is within the worst quintile of Super Output Areas (SOAs) in the country – although, it is relatively near the boundary with the second quintile. The following table shows the average rank for the six SOAs covering the NDC area. It calculates an average for each domain and shows the quintile in which that rank falls. The 32,482 SOAs in England are ranked (with 1 being the worst) and the boundary between each quintile therefore occurs at intervals of 6,496.


Average of all 6 SOAs “Rank” Quintile ALL DOMAINS 6,213 1 Of which: INCOME 5,181 1 EMPLOYMENT 8,314 2 HEALTH DEPRIVATION AND DISABILITY 8,256 2 EDUCATION SKILLS AND TRAINING 13,419 3 BARRIERS TO HOUSING AND SERVICES 3,969 1 CRIME AND DISORDER 7,774 2 LIVING ENVIRONMENT 7,196 2

On this basis, the area scores poorly on the domain Barriers to housing and services, but scores reasonably well on education, skills and training. For the domains which rank the area within the 2nd and 3rd quintiles, it should be noted that, in each case, the position within the quintile is near to the border with the next worst quintile. However, these averages conceal some acute hotspots: the individual SOAs covering the Triangle and Somerville estates rank amongst the worst 5% in the country for crime.

4.2. Community engagement In recent years, New Cross Gate has been perceived to have a weak identity and limited community involvement. It is a complex area that is undergoing considerable change. New arrivals to the UK, students and young professionals represent highly transient population groups – who contrast with longer-term established residents, in particularly an older generation of local authority tenants.

However, there has been some shift in opinion within the neighbourhood, according to the 2004 Household Survey. The proportion of people “who feel part of the community (a great deal or a fair amount)” has risen by 8 percentage points to reach 41%. Although slightly above the average for other NDCs, this still remains well below the national average of 59%. The area also lacks a strong sense of solidarity with only about a half the population feeling that “neighbours look out for each other” (54%) compared with a national average of 73%.

The percentage who feel they can influence decisions in the area have risen from 26% of the local population (which is also the national average) to 31%. This may be a good reflection of the influence exerted through the NDC: Whilst only about a fifth of residents felt the NDC had improved the area in 2002, this had increased to a half the population by 2004.

The involvement of local residents has considerably improved with the re-establishment of all five theme groups – and some sub groups – plus the Community Forum. It is fair to say there has been an increase in residents’ involvement in strategic decision taking, project development and in delivery of some new services. However, it is less clear what degree of operational detail and oversight this entails: for example, there has been no increased involvement in any evaluation or monitoring activities.

There remains some concern regarding the extent to which residents are involved in the more complex aspects of NDC delivery including project management and delivery, monitoring and review and evaluation although on the whole it is felt that the level of involvement in these activities has stayed about the same. This is probably not such a bad thing. The Board continues to benefit from a good number of public service professionals who support the NDC with management and technical skills and their knowledge of governance, appraisal, funding and public service integration. Resident Board members are relied upon to articulate need and keep the organisation accountable and in touch with local aspirations. Nonetheless, one area of more technical involvement is project appraisal, performance monitoring and evaluation where resident engagement is very low.

The Partnership has a good story to tell however. Awareness of the NDC itself has risen considerably. In 2002, the MORI household survey found that only 48% had heard of the

NEW DEAL FOR COMMUNITIES: NATIONAL EVALUATION MAIN PHASE

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